The GOFL annual winter meeting was held on Monday.
With the departure of North Gower, seven teams will compete in the league in 2011: Kars, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Ottawa, Fitzroy Harbour, Carp and Quyon.
The biggest news coming from the meeting is the new playoff format. In an effort to prevent the playoffs from dragging on into October as they have the last few years, the teams decided on a new concept proposed by Big Papi Fleck of Quyon and passed unanimously at the meeting.
After the regular season, the top team will get a bye. (If the top team doesn't want the bye it can be waived and offered to the second place team, they can waive it, etc. and so on down the standings.)
The remaining six teams will play a best of five play off series to be completed in the month of August. (2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th and 4th vs 5th).
The three teams winning the series, plus the bye team will advance to the "Final Weekend Showdown". Essentially the FWS will be a four team double knockout tournament to determine the playoff champion. Top seed to play lowest seed in the first round of the double knockout. The Final Weekend Showdown will take place on the second weekend of September, with two games on Friday Sept 9 and the remainder on Saturday Sept 10 with Sunday as the rain date.
This year Quyon will host the FWS and assuming the GOFL keeps the format, the FWS will rotate to different venues.
See below for the minutes with other details for the upcoming season.
GOFL meeting, 2011Greater Ottawa Fastball League organizing meeting January 31, 2011 at I4C Office in Kanata
Attendees:
Adam Brown (WC Electric)
Steve Edgerton (Barrhaven)
Lindsay Medynski (Barrhaven)
Kevin Chevrier (Easton)
Dave Tubman (Easton)
John Craig (Stittsville)
Marcel Mondoux (Blitz)
Neil Cooke (I4C Victory)
Eric Rosenquist (I4C Victory)
Kenny Fleck (Quyon)
Umpires: Ted Metcalfe has informed the league that he will be the Umpire in Chief for the season. Adam will follow up with George about the results of the meeting as the umpires were unable to send a representative.
League Meeting:
- The seven teams (and their home diamonds) confirming their participation for 2011 are as follows:
o WC Electric: Fitzroy Harbour - going to try for Monday, some Fridays
o Barrhaven Broadway Blues: Manotick on Wednesday
o Ottawa Blitz: Manotick on Wednesday
o Stittsville 56ers: Stittsville on Wednesday
o Kars Aces: to be determined, likely some games on Monday in North Gower, Tuesday in Stittsville after kids ball is over
o I4C Victory: Carp on Thursday
o Quyon: Quyon on Thursday and Friday
- Adam has volunteered again to create the schedule. Teams were asked to forward any special scheduling requests to Adam. Quyon asked to start their games later.
- Doubleheaders will be scheduled whenever practical. Manotick will continue to host a doubleheader every Wednesday. Other locations (Carp, Fitzroy Harbour, Quyon, North Gower) should also be able to host some double dips.
- Regular season will likely start the second week of May, with the original schedule running for 11 weeks with rainout make ups and playoffs to follow.
- Teams will play a balanced schedule of 18 games, with three games against each team.
- New this year: Each team will submit a line up card at the plate meeting to the umpire & their opponent.
- There will not be a Showcase this year, however there may be some opportunities for multiple games in a single location, perhaps in Fitzroy Harbour now that both diamonds have lights.
- Game cancellation: as per before if a team needs to cancel a game (for any reason other than weather), 24 hours notice should be given to the opposing team’s representative. If a visiting team fails to show up with enough players or cancels too late to notify the umpires, then the visiting team will pay for the officials’ fees. If diamond fees are going to be charged to the home team, the offending team will have to pay for the make up diamond rental fee.
- Rain shortened games: a change was proposed and accepted - for games to count in the standings for regular season four (or three and half) innings are completed. Games not "official" will need to be replayed at a later date. For playoffs, same as before, the game will resume at a later date from the point at which the game was delayed.
-Game stories can be sent as soon as possible so the blog can be updated. Report should at a minimum include the score, the winning and losing pitcher and any home runs hit. Statistics should be updated by team representatives as soon as possible on GOFL.ca.
- Each team to ensure their club contacts are updated on GOFL.ca
- For the regular season, each team is responsible for their own expenses, including by not limited to diamond fees, umpire costs, balls, etc. (see exceptions below re: playoffs).
- Regular season tie-breaking: 1) points (2 for a win, 1 for a tie) 2) wins 3) head-to-head 4) run differential in head to head 5) coin flip
- Playoff format changed as per new proposal:
o 1st place team to be awarded bye to final weekend showdown. Team may decline the bye, and it would go to the next team down the standings and could be waived down to the next team, etc.
o Play off series: best of five, 2nd vs. 7th, 3rd vs. 6th, 4th vs. 5th. To be completed during August.
o Final Weekend Showdown: four team double knockout tournament, with top seed playing lowest seed in one of the first round games. Two games on Friday September 9, remainder of the tournament on Saturday September 10, Sunday September 11 will be the rain date. Quyon will host the inaugral FWS.
- Playoff extra innings: if a playoff game is tied, the ‘international rule’ shall being in the 8th inning.
- The cost sharing formula for playoffs will continue. For the playoffs series, if there are an odd number of games (3 or 5), teams shall split umpiring and diamond costs for the final game. For the FWS, all teams shall share equally in the umpiring costs; the host team will pay for the diamonds and retain all profits from such things as Pepsi sales; each team will supply one new ball for each FWS game.
- Playoff winner fund: $500 to the FWS winner and $200 to the FWS finalist. The I4C Trophy will be awarded to the playoff champion. Chevy currently has the trophy safely stored at his house.
- Edgy / Tony Riches will order the softballs for the league. Each team to contact Edgy with the number of softballs (in dozens) each team requires. Same model/colour to be used at last year. Edgy will also be ordering “Gorilla Gold” as requested for each club to eliminate the need for pitchers to use any other substance, as well as line up card books.
- “8 man rule”: in order to continue to ensure minimal defaults, teams will be permitted to start games with 8 players. There will be no “auto-out”. If the ninth player shows up late (or a lucky fan is found), then the team can insert this player in the ninth position in the line-up. However, if a team has only 9 players and one is ejected, the team will then forfeit the game. If a team has 9 players, and there is an injury and the player cannot continue, the team may still play with 8, but then the auto-out will apply.
- “Mercy rule”: will continue as 7 after 5, 5.5, or 6
- “2 out catcher rule”: optional.
- “Discipline”: Same as previous years: first ejection player at a minimum receives a “yellow card” - next ejection automatically results in one game suspension, minimum. Each ejection will result in an umpire’s report and a team’s report. Suspension could be given for any ejection depending on severity. In the past few years this has not been a problem with the GOFL and hopefully that will continue.
- “Bat rule”: The GOFL will continue with the ISF / ISC bat rule. Any bat with the ISF stamp or ASA 2004 stamp would be legal.
- “Pitching rule”: continue with last year's pitching rule, but should be ensuring front foot stays on the pitching rubber during windup.
- Other Softball Canada rules apply.
- There are no restrictions on team rosters (any player, junior, senior, etc. can play). Once a player participates in the league for one team, he cannot play for another team that season.
- The GOFL will advise the ISC that it wishes to participate in the Ontario Challenge Cup in September. The team finishing first in the regular standings will have the first right to the OCC berth and so on down the standings.
- Eric will again look into insurance coverage that can be paid for on a team-by-team basis.
NOTE: There was discussion about a possible eighth team that had expressed interest in maybe playing in the GOFL. The seven member teams were all interested in accepting the possible new team as a full member or even in playing a partial schedule against this team, depending on their interest. Adam will follow up and the schedule / playoffs will be amended if necessary.
Labels: GOFL
